Pune: Two pilots and an aircraft maintenance engineer — two retired Indian Air Force and one retired Navy officers — were killed after a private aviation firm's helicopter crashed at Bavdhan near Pune minutes after taking off from the Oxford Golf Club helipad around 7.30am on Wednesday. There was low visibility caused by heavy fog when the twin-engine Agusta 109 VT-EVV chopper, belonging to Delhi-based Heritage Aviation Private Limited, took off for Juhu in Mumbai, sources said.
The helicopter had taken an overnight halt at the helipad, which is in hilly terrain, after dropping off NCP state president Sunil Tatkare at Parli in Beed district on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, it was on its way to pick up Tatkare from Mumbai for a trip to Raigad district. "The chopper crashed into a hill at an isolated location barely five minutes after taking off at 7.
30am," Pimpri Chinchwad's joint commissioner of police Shashikant Mahavarkar told TOI at the site. It took some time for the police and the fire brigade to locate and reach the accident spot. Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Sunil Kurade said they had alerted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA ) and their team was on its way to the crash site.
Minister of state for civil aviation and Pune MP Murlidhar Mohol confirmed that teams from DGCA and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau would investigate the cause of crash. On Wednesday evening, senior inspector Kanhaiya Thorat from Hinjewadi police stat.
